Malala’s Next Move

The story hardly needs retelling, but it’s almost too incredible to resist. In 2009, Malala Yousafzai was just a Pakistani teenager who kept a diary about her struggles as a young girl living under Taliban rule. In the six ensuing years, she’s been the target of a failed assassination attempt, the guest of political rulers and dignitaries, the youngest recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize and a symbol of hope in a situation in desperate need of one.

And that’s all been before her 18th birthday—so it bears the question: What’s next?

For Yousafzai, the answer isn’t surprising. Education has been her passion, and she’s completing hers at Edgbaston High School in Birmingham, England. And when she completes her education, she won’t be finishing alone. Her “Malala Fund” provides education opportunities for girls around the world and is aiming to make her generation “the last” to bar children from receiving an education. It sounds like an impossible goal, but then, that’s sort of been the story of Malala’s life so far.